Reconstruction Era in the BDC Display Case

Those who have watched Dr. Morris' talk about "The Birth and Death of Reconstruction in South Carolina, 1861 - 1877" may have noticed that the BDC Display Case is part of the Research Room-as-recording-studio's set. Since the display case is in the Research Room and since access to the Research Room has been limited due to COVID-19 concerns, I am going to tell you more about the items in the case and why I selected these particular items to represent the many holdings that the BDC has about the people and events related to the history of the Reconstruction Era. 

On the top shelf is the official National Park Service's handbook to the Reconstruction Era, an image often used as an illustration when Reconstruction is discussed, an archaeology-related book, and one of Dr. Morris' monographs. 

I like the description given in the Library's catalog for the National Park Service's handbook: "The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) is one of the most complicated, poorly understood, and yet most significant periods in American history. The federal government faced the enormous question of how to usher the states of the former Confederacy back into the United States of America. It was a pivotal period in Southern history in which four million African Americans, newly freed from bondage, sought to establish schools and communities and in which white Southerners faced the challenge of both wartime defeat and slavery's abolition."

Continuing on "Reconstruction's big questions--about democracy, race, war, and religion--give it lasting resonance in our own time. This book contains insightful essays written by noted scholars and historians." 

Because it sets up the theme of the display case so well, The Reconstruction Era is on the top shelf in the far left position. It helps that the cover catches one's attention. The handbook was posted online and free to access when the National Monument was first established, so I only acquired a printed copy for the permanent collection, i.e., the BDC. Looks like now that the online title has been removed, I shall have to consider purchasing copies for the Local History sections that can be checked out by Library customers.

The illustration pinned to the back wall above the first shelf of the display case has become something of a logo for the Reconstruction Era. The sketch was made by Alfred R. Waud for the Harper's Weekly newspaper July 25, 1868 issue that included an article about the Freedmen's Bureau. The tension between the white planters on the left side and the formerly enslaved Black people on the right side is palpable. In between the two hostile groups stalwartly stands a Freedmen's Bureau agent, representing the authority of the United States government. The Freedmen's Bureau was established in 1865 after Gen. W.T. Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 and became a foundation of the Reconstruction Era. The Library of Congress has a digital version of the original newspaper and allows anyone to download the image at no cost.  Our original sheet of the image is cataloged as SC PRINT 66.

Materiality of Freedom covers both the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras from the archaeological perspective of 22 scholars: "What can the objects uncovered during investigations on African-American sites tell us about the struggles for racial equality?" As it turns out, quite a lot. The BDC has the only copy of this title within the SCLENDS consortium so one would have to make a research appointment (843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net) to enjoy this book. 

For display purposes, the visual presentation of the materials are a serious consideration. Among the many book credits of Dr. Morris is Yes, Lord, I Know the Road that covers almost 500 years' worth of African-American documentary history in the Palmetto State.  In this case, highlighting at least one of the presenter's many qualifications to speak as an authority on the topic of the day is bolstered by the graphics of the photograph chosen for the cover.  

Shelf 2 gets all sorts of "help" trying to capture the viewer's interest because I needed to include the ground-breaking but bland covered Reconstruction Era in Beaufort County Local Initiative for National Designation. I maintain that the movement to get Beaufort County named as the best place for the study and appreciation of the significance of the Reconstruction Era began with Dr. Page Putnam Miller's History 712 class and the Sea Islands Reconstruction Heritage Partnership's public forum funded in part by a SC Humanities Council grant at the University of South Carolina Beaufort in 2003. Dr. Miller's class and the USCB Forum occurred fourteen years before the declaration by President Obama of the Reconstruction Era National Monument in 2017. The red-white-and blue scarf is meant to draw the eye and enhance a microfilm box (boring) and complement the covers of the other two books on the shelf. 

On the back wall of shelf two is a printout of the landing page for the digital version of the New South newspaper (which we have on microfilm) and a sample front page of the Beaufort Republican, a weekly African-American newspaper published in the early 1870s. We have the microfilm and will keep the microfilm even though the Library of Congress includes this particular newspaper in its Chronicling America website. If you're interested in knowing about the local newspapers that we have on microfilm or that are online in whole or in part, contact us at 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net. I will be happy to provide you with details and links (when available).

South Carolina Scalawags concentrates on the 15% of white South Carolina residents who self-identified as Republicans during the Reconstruction Era. Historian Hyman Rubin III explores who they were, and their aspirations, disappointments, failings and successes during their time at the helm running the state's government from 1868 to 1876.  There are plenty of copies within the SCLENDS consortium for you to borrow. 

Capitol Men leads off with a chapter about Beaufort's own Robert Smalls. The goal of this short-listed Pulitzer Prize in History book by Philip Dray was to view Reconstruction from the perspective of the first Black Congressmen. And he does. There are plenty of copies in the local history sections at the Branch Libraries for you to borrow. 

Looking at the image I took of the whole case and of shelf 3 in particular, I think that I should have switched the location of Robert Smalls' quote and the microfilm boxes for better flow from shelf 2 to shelf 3.

Shelf 3 highlights Robert Smalls' critical role in fostering Reconstruction and his attempts to ameliorate the Redemptionists. Schooling the Freed People book and the three reels of Penn School Papers microfilm indicate his deep interest in education for all children. The Library has lots of copies of the 2005 documentary fim by Adrena Ifill and Sean Patrick Thomas about Congressman Robert Smalls : A Patriot's Journey from Slavery to Capitol Hill to share.

My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.  -- Robert Smalls, November 1, 1895

After attending the "Reimagining Access : Inclusive Technology for Archives & Special Collections" webinar last night, I now know that I should have angled the quote with a support for easier reading too. 

I included the Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials, 1871-1873 by Lou Faulkner Williams as a solid contribution to the history and understanding of the Reconstruction Era in this state. Although the trials were held upstate for crimes committed upstate, the outcome reverberated throughout the lowcountry as the Fourth Federal Circuit Court became a forum for constitutional interpretation of the 14th Amendment and the Enforcement Acts. 

My other option to represent the KKK was the trial transcript. Unfortunately, the book cover offers very little visual appeal in a display case. The book cover is a dull brown with a title only on the book spine.The BDC holds the only printed copy of the Proceedings in the Ku Klux Trials at Columbia, S.C., in the United States Circuit Court, November term, 1871.  If you like to read trial proceedings, then by all means contact the BDC to set up an appointment.  

I try to put the fewest number of items on the bottom shelf since one has to lean down to "see" them. Disputes over the conduct and outcomes of elections seemed particularly timely in the last quarter of 2020 and early 2021 and we have some documents in the BDC  that address that topic during the Reconstruction Era. I chose to make surrogates of the first pages of two documents placed on red backgrounds on shelf 4 for that reason. The documents shown relate to disputes over the congressional election results in Beaufort County between Robert Smalls and William Elliott for the 50th Congress, 2nd Session and the Arrest and Imprisonment of Robert Smalls on debatable grounds a decade earlier. The BDC is the only SCLENDS library that holds copies of these congressional documents. 

The blue banner on the surrogates is the URL to the BDCBCL: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids blog on WordPress.There are at the time of this writing more than 20 lists and finding aids related to the Reconstruction Era on that blog. I will send you the list and active links to the people, places and events related to the Reconstruction Era as it unfolded here if you just ask bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468. 

Last but not least is a copy of Forever Free : The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction by the dean of Reconstruction studies, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, Eric Foner. As the New York Times Review of Books wrote: "Foner traces the lines of race and politics that run from Reconstruction to the age of segregation to the civil rights movement to our own time.” The SCLENDS consortium has plenty of copies of this to share. 

Even if you choose not to come to make an appointment to review these items inside the Research Room, we do hope that you take one or more of the following actions to expand your awareness and understanding of this critical era of American history. 

1. Watch Dr. Morris' lecture brought to you by the BDC and the Beaufort County Historical Society before we take it down from the Library's YouTube Channel on February 25, 2021.

2. Borrow some of the items that one can check out from the Beaufort County Library or SCLENDS consortium.

3. Read a Hoopla Reconstruction Era related title as an e-book or audio-book.

4. Explore the BDC's WordPress blog for additional online information about how Reconstruction played out in this local area.

5. Explore other Reconstruction related posts in this Connections blog.

6. Visit the St. Helena Branch Library's Reconstruction Era reference collection to learn more about this critical era of American history. 

7. Walk by the National Park Service's headquarters next door to the Beaufort Branch Library and read the markers on that property.   

8. Explore the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park's website.

Reading Suggestions about Party Politics during the Reconstruction Era

One of the findings from the Library's strategic plan survey responses was that customers wanted staff to offer more book recommendations. Though I admit that most likely those customers wanted book recommendations about the latest fiction and their read-alikes, I am going to interpret that finding to include requests for more recommendations about local history nonfiction, particularly when we have some good titles to suggest to you as supplemental reading related to the BDC's  local history program presentations. 

National Park Service Historian Ranger Eric Ellis gave a great talk about the political divisions of the Beaufort Republican party last week. As he noted, the Republican Party was in control during most of the Reconstruction Period until it split into various factions. In 1874 Democrats changed their election tactics, disrupting Republican political rallies and cutting political deals with Republican splinter groups to secure local and state offices. 

Here are a few recommended books from the BDC or SCLENDS consortium about the rough and tumble, oftentimes violent - but fascinating - political history of South Carolina's Reconstruction Era and its impact on and at the national level : 

Black Over White : Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction by Thomas Holt. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1977. 

The Southern Historical Association awarded this book its 1978 Charles S. Syndor Prize as recognition of Holt's scholarship combining quantitative analysis with narrative history to challenge myths about the power and political effectiveness of Reconstruction-era Black politicians in the Palmetto State. 

The Bloody South Carolina Election of 1876 : Wade Hampton III, the Red Shirt Campaign for Governor and the End of Reconstruction by Jerry L. West. Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2011. 

Contentious political campaigns are nothing new. This book examines the gubernatorial election of 1876, in which the state's most celebrated Civil War general created a united front in the Democratic Party and wrested control of politics from the Republicans. Of particular note are the ways in which the race, with its disqualified ballots, delays and wrangling, prefigured some elections in the 2000s. For four months, the state endured two warring Houses of Representatives. Two Black Beaufort County men, Thomas Hamilton and N.B. Myers crossed the aisle to join the Wallace House in support of Hampton to secure his governorship. 

Gullah Statesman : Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839 - 1915 by Edward A. Miller, Jr. Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Available in print and as an e-book on Hoopla. 

A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was born into slavery but through acts of remarkable courage and determination became the first African American hero of the Civil War and one of the most influential African American politicians in South Carolina history. I consider this one of the most important secondary works about Smalls. It is a political biography of his triumphs and setbacks of the celebrated U.S. congressman and advocate of compulsory, desegregated public education. 

Hampton and His Red Shirts : The Story of South Carolina's Deliverance in 1876 by Alfred B. Williams. Charleston, SC : Walker, Evans and Cogswell Company, 1935. 

The author was a newspaper man who argued that the "carpetbagger" government that ruled South Carolina from 1868 until it was overthrown in 1876 was corrupt and caused more destruction than the four years of the Civil War. More recent scholarship has challenged Williams' views. Hathitrust provides a digital copy online. 

Hurrah for Hampton! : Black Red Shirts in South Carolina during Reconstruction by Edmund L. Drago. Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 1998. 

Drago takes a more balanced view of the Reconstruction Era to examine the motives and concerns of the former enslaved who supported a movement that eventually led to the return of white supremacy in the Palmetto State. Though most of the freedmen identified and supported the Republican party, Drago focused on the primary source testimonies before Congress of seven Black conservatives who joined the white paramilitary clubs termed the "Red Shirts" who supported the election of former Confederate general Wade Hampton in the governor's race in 1876. He also includes analysis of eleven slave narratives to explore the relationship between Black initiative and southern paternalism. 

Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption, 1861 - 1893 by Stephen R. Wise and Lawrence S. Rowland. Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 2015.    

I consider the three volumes series on the history of Beaufort County by Lawrence S. Rowland and others as "The Bible of Local History."  Volume 2 explores how the Union victory and the political and social Reconstruction of South Carolina was followed by a counterrevolution called Redemption, the organized campaign of Southern whites, defeated in the war, to regain supremacy over African Americans. While former slave-owning, anti-black "Redeemers" took control of mainland Beaufort County, they were thwarted on the Sea Islands, where African Americans retained power and kept reaction at bay. By 1893, elements of both the New and Old South coexisted uneasily side by side as the Democratic mainland reverted to an agricultural-based economy while the Republican Sea Islands and the town of Beaufort underwent an economic boom based on the phosphate mining industry and the new commercial port in the Lowcountry town of Port Royal.

Requiem for Reconstruction : Black Countermemory and the Legacy of The Lowcountry's Lost Political Generation by Robert D. Bland. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2026.  

Bland "explores how Black Americans born in the thirty years between 1840 and 1870 saw Reconstruction as a defining political movement and worked to preserve its legacy by formulating new archives, shaping local community counternarratives, and using the Black press to preserve and circulate Reconstruction's meaning to a national audience." 

South Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras : Essays from the Proceeding of the South Carolina Historical Association edited by Michael Brem Bonner and Fritz P. Hamer. Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 2016. 

This is an anthology of twenty-three of the most enduring and important scholarly articles about the Civil War and Reconstruction era published in the peer-reviewed journal since 1931. The volume is divided by topic into five subsections: "The Politics of Secession and Civil War"; "On the Battlefront"; "On the Home Front."; "Emancipation, Race, and Society"; and "The Politics of Reconstruction." 

State of Rebellion : Reconstruction in South Carolina by Richard Zuczek. Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 2009. Also available as an e-book on Hoopla.

The author recounts the volatile course of Reconstruction in the state that experienced the longest, largest, and most dynamic federal presence in the years immediately following the Civil War in this book.  He details the tactics - from judicial and political fraud to economic coercion, terrorism, and guerrilla activity - employed by conservatives to nullify the African American vote, control African American labor, and oust northern Republicans from the state. He documents the federal government's attempt to quash the conservative challenge but shows that, by 1876, white opposition was so unified, widespread, and well-armed that it passed beyond government control. 

To Rescue the Republic : Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union and the Crisis of 1876 by Bret Baier. New York : Custom House, 2021.

Fox News Channel's Chief Political Anchor provides a history of Grant's essential yet underappreciated role in preserving the United States during a period of great political division. The book is available in print, large print, and audio CD through SCLENDS as well as on Hoopla as an audio book and as an e-book.  

If you happen to be more of a watcher than a reader, then I suggest that you take a look at "The Rise and Fall of Reconstruction in South Carolina" with Dr. Brent Morris, a COVID-era recording we made when all was shut down five years ago. The information Dr. Morris provides is very helpful to understanding what happened in the Palmetto State between approximately 1865 and 1880. If you want to skip the introduction and get straight to his lecture, begin around the 5-minute mark. 

Reminder: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Monday, May 25 in honor of Memorial Day.

Reconstruction Era

On July 12th, I attended the opening ceremony and reception for America's Reconstruction: The Untold Story, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for School Teachers being held at USC-Beaufort, July 12-August 1, 2015. Thirty teachers selected from all over the nation are in Beaufort to learn more about this pivotal era of American history and the crucial role that our county played in its evolution.  Keynote speaker was Dr. Emory Campbell, former Director of Penn Center and Chairperson of the Gullah/Geechee Heritage Corridor Commission who explained "What Emancipation Meant to the Gullah People."




The Institute examines the historical period 1861 to 1893 from the perspective of unique events and changing social conditions unfolding here in the South Carolina lowcountry and coastal Georgia. In many ways, Beaufort District was Ground Zero for Reconstruction. As Dr. J. Brent Morris wrote on the America's Reconstruction homepage: "The Reconstruction Era was literally a period of rebuilding ... The ending of slavery not only brought freedom to African Americans but also inaugurated a complex reshaping of fundamental American institutions including the lawmaking process, family structure, church organization, and the very definition of American citizenship itself." Reconstruction left an especial imprint on the lowcountry as it began in our locality late in 1861 and is said to have ended locally upon the death of Robert Smalls in 1915.

The Beaufort District Collection has compiled selective lists and links and digitized some of its materials and images on the subject of Reconstruction to support the goals of the Summer Institute. But, of course, we hope that anyone interested in the people, places, themes and issues of Reconstruction will use what we've put together.  We trust that all who peruse the content will gain a better understanding of the fascinating complexity of the Reconstruction era and its enduring impact on the people and institutions of the United States.

Thanks to Traci Cox, Information Services Coordinator, who helped me get the lists, links, and images onto our Library website.

Local History Programs in May 2026

We have three local history programs scheduled for May. We hope that you'll be able to join us at one or more of them. 

On Thursday, May 14 at 11:00 AM in the Beaufort Branch Library Meeting Room, NPS Historian Eric J. Ellis will lead a thought-provoking program on Reconstruction-era politics entitled A Party Divided: Political Divisions of the Beaufort Republican Party During Reconstruction. During the beginning of the Reconstruction period in Beaufort, SC, a division in the Republican party grew. This political division pitted William C. Morrison and Robert Smalls, heroes of the Planter, against each other. This division in the Republican party was heated and even violent at times and involved some big names in Beaufort history. Hear how this division began, how it played out, and how it impacted the Republican Party of Beaufort’s Reconstruction period at "A Party Divided: Political Divisions of the Beaufort Republican Party During Reconstruction." 

Originally from Jacksonville, Eric joined the US Navy after high school serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. After the Navy, Eric attended school at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Eric earned his Bachelor of Arts in History and his Master of Arts in Public History and 19th c. US History. After graduation Eric took a position with New Mexico Historic Sites as an Interpretive Ranger. In 2023, Eric accepted a position as a historian for the National Park Service at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. In his time with the Park Service, Eric focused his research on Black Landownership during the Reconstruction period and completed research on a variety of topics on the Reconstruction period for the park and park partners.  

This program is part of the "Historically Speaking" local history series brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort County Historical Society.

At 2:00 PM on May 19th at the St. Helena Branch Library, please join us for Dr. Randy James' fascinating program on Cochineal.    You may be wondering, "What is Cochineal?" The answer is not a simple one! Dr. Randy James, AKA Dr. Dirt, will share the fascinating yet forgotten history of a colonial industry: the harvesting of Cochineal insects on Hunting Island. But why would anyone want to grow bugs? Come join us to find out!

Dr. James has a PhD in soils and is a Professor Emeritus with the Ohio State University, College of Food, Agriculture & Environmental Sciences. He has lived in Beaufort for over 15 years, doing a lot of volunteer work in the community, and is endlessly fascinated with our dirt.

This program is co-sponsored by the Beaufort History Museum. Doors open at 1:30 PM.

How many of us know that Europeans were in Beaufort almost a century before the Pilgrims first ate turkey at Plymouth Rock? Dr. David Moore will give a presentation diving into this little-known history on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 11:00am at the Coastal Discovery Museum (70 Honey Horn Drive, Hilton Head, SC 29926). This program is co-sponsored by the Beaufort County Historical Society.

“Santa Elena” (Saint Helena) was on European charts as a strategically important geographic point from 1526 and became Spain’s premier North American colony 1566-1587. Spanish “La Florida” encompassed all lands from modern Maine thru New Mexico. From Santa Elena, Florida’s capital until 1576, expeditions and religious missions ranged as far north as the Chesapeake Bay, as far south as Key West…and as far west as Tennessee. Captain Juan Pardo was tasked with establishing a highway connecting Parris Island to the silver mines in northern Mexico. Fort San Juan, just outside today’s Morganton, NC, was one of the multiple outposts Captain Pardo established during two expeditions of the interior from 1566 to 1568. Archaeology revealed, and artifacts recovered from the “Berry Site” (as Fort San Juan is now known), are direct reflections of Beaufort’s 16th Century history.

Dr. David Moore has worked at the Berry site near Morganton, North Carolina for 25 years and currently directs the summer field school. He has directed major excavations at numerous sites in North Carolina including Hardaway, Warren Wilson, and Berry. His work in the upper Catawba Valley began in 1986 with excavations at the Berry site as part of his dissertation research. He is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Warren Wilson College.

Reminder: The Beaufort County Library System will be closed on April 21st for Staff Development Day.

BDC Facebook Posts during July 2023

Because I was aware that I would be back to a one-person shop for awhile, Facebook posts had to be sacrificed. Thus, this post will be considerably shorter than heretofore customary. You will see a theme,  Reconstruction, because of our "Waving the Red Shirts of Redemption" local history program held on July 12th with National Park Service Supervisory Historian Nathan Betcher. More photos of that program are on the BDC's Facebook page. 

I covered the Overview of July 2023 in a separate Connections post. 

Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday

July 3, 2023: "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" continues the theme of Black resistance. The BDC and Lowcountry Room Reference Collection at the Hilton Head Branch Library are the only two holders of A Profile of Runaway Slaves in Virginia and South Carolina, 1730 - 1787 in the SCLENDS consortium. Chapter titles are: The legal setting; The fugitive as a physical specimen; The fugitive's degree of acculturation; Fugitive demeanor and discourse; Flight and destination; and, The development of the fugitive slave clause in the Constitutional Convention.

BTW: If you want to learn more about the actions and opinions of the Beaufort District representatives at the Constitution Convention, we have a bibliography for that.

July 10, 2023: "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday:" As I was preparing a flyer of recommended materials to distribute at Nathan's program on July 12th, I found that the BDC has the only copy of Race and Politics in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina, 1876 - 1915 by Robert F. Kassinger. He wrote it as a Master's thesis for Kean College of New Jersey in June 1974. I ordered it on microfiche from ProQuest (document item EP11303) some years ago. This dissertation is not listed on WorldCat though one can still buy a reproduction via ProQuest. But buyers beware! The microfiche begins with a disclaimer: "Note to Users: This reproduction is the best copy available" - and they weren't joking. Most of the 114 page typescript is so light as to be illegible. However, the thesis contains some hand-drawn maps which are of interest in light of our upcoming program about politics in the 1870s. A reminder about that program [was included.]

July 17, 2023: "Uniquely BDC:" Editor Dorothy Sterling captures the words of former slaves about their personal histories during Reconstruction Era in The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans (Da Capo Press, 1994). Here one can find evidence "of unprecedented progress in the fields of politics, education, economics, and culture; and the inevitable tragic struggle by African Americans against southern white efforts to resume political power and to fetter black freedom with a thousand chains more durable than slavery."

BTW: The BDC has a small collection of Dorothy Sterling letters sent while she was researching her book about Robert Smalls in the 1950s. Learn more about those on our BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog. (https://bdcbcl.wordpress.com) Make an appointment to come into our Research Room to see today's featured materials: bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468.

July 24, 2023: "Uniquely BDC Materials Monday:" In honor of our most recent program, I recommend What Reconstruction Meant: Historical Memory in the American South by Bruce E. Baker (University of Virginia Press, 2007). We have the only copy in SCLENDS of this title. He "examines what both white and Black South Carolinians thought about the history of Reconstruction and how it shaped the way then lived their lives in the first half of the Twentieth Century." Several chapters are on topic with our most recent local history program, viz. "Wade Hampton's Legend in Ben Tillman's World; Celebrating the Red Shirts;" and "Memories and Countermemory." Baker looks at how different groups of people held different views of Reconstruction and how their respective views may have changed over time. He discusses how what happened in the past influences perceptions of the present and may well form projections about the future. Make an appointment to visit the Research Room to read this very interesting "social memory treatment" of a very important period of our past: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468

July 31, 2023: "Materials Monday: Uniquely BDC" - The only copy of The First Black Slave Society: Britain's Barbarity Times in Barbados, 1636-1876 by Hilary McD. Beckles (2016) within the SCLENDS consortium is in our Research Room. The book describes the brutal Black slave society and plantation system of Barbados and explains how this slave chattel model was perfected by the British and thence exported to Jamaica and South Carolina for profit. Factoid - and part of the reason why I chose to purchase this title for the BDC: The SC Slave Code of 1740 in the aftermath of the Stono Rebellion was based on the slave codes of Barbados.

According to reviewer Demetrius Eudell in the winter issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2018), "Beckles presents a political and economic history of Barbados from its founding as the paradigmatic 'pure plantation' slave society to the post-slavery era marked by the labor rebellions of the formerly enslaved. Using an extensive array of original sources from archival holdings in Barbados, London, and New York, Beckles chronicles the systematic subordination of Blacks for two and half centuries, enforced by “military machinery” and the execution of the law, beginning with the Slave Code of 1661 (24). Beckles also demonstrates that from the earliest moments, the enslaved challenged the conditions in which “the administering of physical and mental violence was the norm.”

Make an appointment to visit our Research Room and learn more about Barbadian influence in early South Carolina: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468

About Local History Programs and/or schedule changes:

July 3, 2023: Have a safe and pleasant Independence Day. The BDC will re-open on Wednesday for those who have a scheduled appointment already on our book.

July 6, 2023: Learn more about our next program presenter in "Connections." I do hope to see you there.

July 22, 2023: One month to "Tide of Death" at Hilton Head Island Branch Library.

July 23, 2023: In the spirit of transparency, I wrote about my plans and priorities on Connections earlier this month as the Library seeks to hire Olivia's successor.

Black History Note: Wednesday

July 5, 2023: "Black History Note:" This is very exciting! Volunteer-created transcriptions for the 54-ft long South Carolina voting rights petition signed in 1865 are now available on Library of Congress' website for search and discovery. - And you can't have an election without voters - and to learn more about the Reconstruction Era politics join us on July 12th for “Waving the Red Shirts of Redemption: Reconstruction Era Politics and the South Carolina Election of 1876” with Nathan Betcher (NPS) as an "Historically Speaking" Extra during Summer Reading Program 2023. We'll gather in the Beaufort Branch Library's Theresa Dunn Meeting Room, 311 Scott Street, beginning at 2:00 pm. This free program will be a "First Come, First Seated" local history opportunity. Thank you Beaufort County Historical Society for being one of the BDC's valued partners.

July 12, 2023: "Black History Note:" The Reconstruction period was the first time in which Black men in South Carolina could vote and hold office. Radical Republicans, Independent Republicans, Straight-out Democrats and Fusion Democrats all vied for votes and dominance during the 1876 Presidential election. Scandals, violence, malfeasance, and charges of voter fraud were rife. Some key local African American political figures were William Whipper and Robert Smalls. Join us at 2 pm today at the Beaufort Branch to learn more about this critical period in our nation's history from NPS Historian Nathan Betcher. First come, first seated. Doors open at 1:30 pm.

July 19, 2023: "Black History Note:" Recently I was evaluating additional sources re: the politics of the 1870s. I borrowed a number of titles from the SCLENDS consortium to evaluate if I should order one or more for the BDC. Among those items was a 7 page memoir written circa 1912 by John G. Guignard about the Election of 1876 and the turmoil in the SC Legislature. Therein I discovered two Black Beaufort County men mentioned on page 5 who had not been on my radar heretofore: Thomas Hamilton and N.B. Myers. I was intrigued.

Usually when I get curious about matters of Beaufort District's long and storied history, my next two steps are: 1) Check that Bible of Beaufort history, the 3 volumes by Dr. Rowland and 2) Check for the person(s) in the BDC's own Online Obituary Index. I found more in both.

The obituary cards shown here for Thomas Hamilton were published in the Palmetto Post newspaper on March 25, 1886. Next week, I'll share more about Nat Myers.

Even after almost 25 years here, I get the privilege of ahh ha! moments.

July 26, 2023: "Black History Note:" continuing the thread from last Wednesday, N.B. Myers, aka Nat, was the other Black man from Beaufort County who joined the Wallace House. His name is in our Online Obituary Index so I pulled his obituary card from our files. His death is noted in the Palmetto Post of 26 February 1885 on page 3 that recounts information found in the latest issue of the local Republican newspaper Sea Island News about recent deaths.

I am providing a transcription.

Harvest of Death

The past inclement winter has played havoc with a number of negroes in the vicinity of Beaufort enfeebled by insufficient food and clothing and other cause that add to the death among them. By the Republican paper published in Beaufort we counted no less than five or six deaths announced of negroes who had died in the week. By the manner of the announcement one would have supposed they were white people. After mentioning that in 400 or 500 feet of each other are buried three Republican sheriffs in the Catholic Cemetery in Charleston, the death of York Heyward, a mail carrier on St. Helena Island is announced, then Neil Mitchell, one of the town scavengers, then Peter Gibbes, then N. B. Myers and Daniel Major and now this week Moody Pinckney. [illegible] Judge Wright, who was of the same ilk, died in Charleston also last week.

Added values: 1. Few issues of the Sea Island News remain and the BDC does not have any issues at all, in physical form or on microfilm. 2. Only the first person named in a group of death notices is typed onto the actual obituary card. All deceased persons in a group of death notices are listed in our online obituary index (ooi). Most of the index entries point to the physical card(s) for the first named person of the group. 3. Try searching for your ancestors in the ooi.

Finding Aid Friday

July 7, 2023: In honor of Olivia's last day, I highlight the last archival collection she worked on: The Beaufort Power and Sail Squadron Records. She used Amanda Forbes' work in 2018 as the foundation for the revised Finding Aid and integrated more recently donated materials.

Summer Reading Program 2023 Related:

July 9, 2023: Looking for recommendations to fill that "Read about the Lowcountry" block on the Summer Reading 2023 Bingo card? Here's some under 200 pages for quick - entertaining - but educational reads.

... and now you have the information I provided on the BDC's Facebook page last month. As there is no new BDC Circulation Assistant as yet, the Redux plan will remain in effect throughout August 2023.

Just a reminder:

Limited access to the Research Room continues. Please email or contact me to make the necessary appointment: bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6446. Because of a steady increase of in Research Room customers, I'd recommend that you contact us at least a week in advance of your proposed visit. Wouldn't you know that as soon as the BDC staff was cut in half - again - researchers would be clamoring for our slots.

New Year, New Programs: January and February BDC Programs

The BDC is welcoming the new year with quite a few new programs. We can't wait to learn from these presenters, and we look forward to seeing y'all there too!

Dr. Brenda Litchfield has been growing camellias for 30 years and is a co-author of The Camelia Garden Field Guide. Her program on January 27th at the St. Helena Branch Library, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM, will cover the fascinating history of camellias along with their care and propagation. Dr. Litchfield will also discuss the different forms and varieties suitable for growing in the Lowcountry. 

Dr. Brenda Litchfield grew up in Beaufort when it was a sleepy little town that no none had discovered yet. She taught elementary, middle, and high school in Neptune Beach, FL for 11 years before earning her Ph.D. She taught at Florida State University for one year and for 27 years at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. She has been growing camellias for over 25 years and had 250+ in her former yard in Alabama. Dr. Litchfield's book, The Camellia Garden Field Guide, is a guide for anyone interested in growing camellias. She is on the Board of Directors of the American Camellia Society and has served on many committees. She was president of the South Alabama Camellia Club for 13 years – because no one else would do it! She and her husband travel whenever they can, and she has been to 70 different countries. She lived in China (Macau and Xi’an [she awn’] for 10 months and Thailand for 6 months while teaching at universities there.

This program is co-sponsored by the Beaufort History Museum and the Beaufort County Library. 

On Saturday, February 7th, the BDC is going on a Field Trip to the Beaufort National Cemetery - and you're invited! Docent and historian Bonnie Wade-Mucia will be our tour guide. 

 Bonnie Wade Mucia, AG® is an Accredited Genealogist in the New England region and is the owner of Keeper of the Past Genealogy, LLC. She serves as the Director of the Mayflower Families Silver Books Project for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, where she concentrates on the descendants of Mayflower passengers. In addition, Bonnie is a volunteer docent and historian at Beaufort National Cemetery and has conducted military repatriation casework for the U.S. Army and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on World War II soldiers. She has published numerous articles in respected genealogical journals and delivered lectures on various topics. Originally from Rhode Island, Bonnie now resides in Bluffton, South Carolina with her husband, Joseph.

The tour will begin promptly at 1 PM and will last an hour. Registration is not required.

Please note:

• Transportation to the Beaufort National Cemetery is on your own. Carpooling is encouraged as parking is limited.
• Please arrive at the National Cemetery (1601 Boundary Street) before 1 PM to ensure that you are not left behind.
• Please dress comfortably in clothes and shoes that will support an hour-long walk outdoors.

UPDATE 6 FEBRUARY 2026 at 2:30 PM: We regret that Ranger Ellis' program has to be postponed. We will provide the new date and time for his talk about "A Party Divided" when the new details are finalized. -- gmc

Then, on Friday, February 20th at 11:00 AM in the Beaufort Branch Library Meeting Room, NPS Historian Eric J. Ellis will lead a thought-provoking program on Reconstruction-era politics. During the beginning of the Reconstruction period in Beaufort, SC, a division in the Republican party grew. This political division pitted William C. Morrison and Robert Smalls, heroes of the Planter, against each other. This division in the Republican party was heated and even violent at times and involved some big names in Beaufort history. Hear how this division began, how it played out, and how it impacted the Republican Party of Beaufort’s Reconstruction period at "A Party Divided: Political Divisions of the Beaufort Republican Party During Reconstruction." 

Originally from Jacksonville, Eric joined the US Navy after high school serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. After the Navy, Eric attended school at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Eric earned his Bachelor of Arts in History and his Master of Arts in Public History and 19th c. US History. After graduation Eric took a position with New Mexico Historic Sites as an Interpretive Ranger. In 2023, Eric accepted a position as a historian for the National Park Service at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. In his time with the Park Service, Eric focused his research on Black Landownership during the Reconstruction period and completed research on a variety of topics on the Reconstruction period for the park and park partners.  

This program is part of the "Historically Speaking" local history series brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort County Historical Society.

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This schedule is subject to change. We ask that you check the Library's online calendar for program updates and cancellations. Also, please note that the BDC Research Room may be closed on local history program days due to limited staff availability.

Reminder: The Library system will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2026 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy AND on Monday, February 16, 2026 in honor of Presidents Day. 

Diversify Your Reading Challenge: May 2022 Selection

Back on January 11th, I proclaimed that I could cover the monthly themes offered by the Diversify Your Reading Facebook page with materials in the BDC and/or Local History sections. I had a little trouble with February's theme and I am having trouble selecting the featured item for May - not because of too few choices as was the case with February's selection but because of the almost overwhelming amount of choices for May's selection! 

As you can see the theme for May is History. In the Dewey Decimal Classification system all items cataloged in the 900s relate to Geography and History. All but three of the shelves in the public area of the BDC have DDC numbers in the 900s. In the stacks behind the locked door, there are rows upon rows of items with 900s DDC spine labels. Over half of the storage area shelves house books, DVDs, pamphlets, CDs, etc. classified in the 900s. 

How am I to choose just one geography & history related title to highlight here to satisfy the challenge? It will be difficult.

Personally I like many of the materials in the collection. Indeed, I've chosen most of the materials in the Research Room over the past 23 years - for quite specific reasons. Some items I use a great deal in my work as research support for social media posts and as recommended sources for other researchers. Some of the titles are on my short list of titles that incoming BDC staff need to read and understand in order to get grounded to help our in-room customers. Some titles are collections in and of themselves like all of the War of the Rebellion volumes or all of the 120 volumes of  articles within the South Carolina Historical Magazine. Some titles are only focused on a particular person, topic or event while others sweep over broader periods of  historical time. 

How can one truly compare the Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History by Michael Taylor and the 3 volumes of Beaufort District's Bible, The History of Beaufort County South Carolina, 1514 - 2007 by Larry Rowland, Steve Wise and Gerhard Spieler with such specific works as The Bluffton Expedition by Jeff Fulgham or Captain William Hilton and the Founding of Hilton Head Island by Dwayne Pickett?

Each has its strengths. Each helps in some way to provide a fuller understanding of the breadth, depth and scope of Beaufort District's long and storied history. All are significant though each in its own way.

Past readers of Connections and the BDC's Facebook page that I do tend to mention certain key titles often. Past BDC employees know that I have my 5 most important titles that I use in their training. And I also have worked with a number of authors through the years whom I definitely do not want to disappoint should I choose their title as my featured history themed book for this challenge. 

Could I come up with a "Grace's Favorite Things" display case such as Cassie did back in December? No. I'd have to have several cases to be able to include my personal top 50 materials - even if I was able to narrow down my choices to 50, rather than 100 or even 250 titles. 

Do I go with a title under 200 pages that tend to be most popular among local history section customers - like the ones shown on the right from a 2019 flyer I made? 

Do I go with a title that only the more academic researchers of the BDC's customers tend to use?

 
Do I just select one with the most illustrations? 

The BDC gets a lot of genealogical researchers - and we have a lot of genealogy materials in the 900s. Is there one title that I like the absolute best? 

Do I focus on historical works about minorities or special populations? 

Do I go with a title that I think is fun?

 
Do I go with the most scandalous or salacious facets of the area's past? 

Do I choose the title that best illustrates that it is the most outrageously obvious product of its time?

 

Obviously, I have given May's selection some thought - and after all that pondering, I think that I should stick to what is in my opinion the most classic of Beaufort District related titles, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment by Willie Lee Rose (1964). Her research was prodigious and thorough. Her work has withstood the test of time and retains its relevance more than 50 years after its publication. It was a key title in my own interest in South Carolina history. It opened my eyes to how politics, economics, and social mores impact, interpret, and inform race relations. It was an important book when I discovered it in the Winyah High School Library in the 1970s and it remains an important book today - so much so that it has been continuously in print since its initial publication.

From the University of Georgia Press's catalog page: 

Just seven months into the Civil War, a Union fleet sailed into South Carolina's Port Royal Sound, landed a ground force, and then made its way upriver to Beaufort. Planters and farmers fled before their attackers, allowing virtually all their major possessions, including ten thousand slaves, to fall into Union hands.

Rehearsal for Reconstruction, winner of the Allan Nevins Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, and the Charles S. Sydnor Prize, is historian Willie Lee Rose's chronicle of change in this Sea Island region from its capture in 1861 through Reconstruction. With epic sweep, Rose demonstrates how Port Royal constituted a stage upon which a dress rehearsal for the South's postwar era was acted out. 

Richard Bardolph of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro was prophetic in his review in 1966: "Gracefully written, competently organized, and exhaustively researched, [the] book before us may well prove the definitive treatment which will further recounting of the narrative unnecessary for a good while to come." 

I believe that anyone who lives in Beaufort County with even an iota of interest in local history should read the seminal Rehearsal for Reconstruction. There are loads of copies available for check out through the local history sections at the Branch Libraries. 

There are well over 200 titles about the course of Reconstruction in this area within the Beaufort District Collection, including an unpublished paper "The Great Port Royal Experiment, following the War Between the States" presented by Brantley Harvey, Jr. before the Beaufort County Historical Society in 1962, The Port Royal Experiment : A Case Study in Development by Kevin Dougherty (2014)  and The Case for Port Royal : Interpreting the Reconstruction Era National Monument by Eric Plaag (2017).  There are even more titles about the Reconstruction Period in the United States available through the SCLENDS consortium. 

Fun fact: The Southern Association for Women Historians annually award the Willie Lee Rose Prize for the "best book on any topic in southern history written by a woman or women. 

Note: Bardolph, Richard. Book Review: Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment by Willie Lee Rose, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 90, issue 1, January 1966, pp. 141 -143.